In co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/273,238, included herein by reference, an electrical machine is described which uses a plurality of flux conductors interspersed with each other around the circumference of the machine. Each of these flux conductors has opposite magnetic polarity to the adjacent flux conductors. In this design the number of flux conductors which could be arranged around a circumference was limited by the necessity of leaving an air gap between adjacent laminates sufficient to minimize flux leakage. Nevertheless, a certain amount of flux leakage is inevitable in this design. It would be advantageous to provide a design which allows for closer spacing of laminates, thus allowing for a greater number of poles and decreasing the amount of flux leakage inherent in the geometry.
Co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/273,238 describes flux switches which magnetically connect with the flux conductors over a small air gap between flat terminations. There is a certain amount of reluctance to flux passage which is dictated by the width of the air gap and the surface area of the air gap. It would be advantageous to provide a flux switch geometry which would increase the surface area of the air gap thus reducing magnetic reluctance between the flux switch and the flux conductor.
Furthermore, the thickness of the flux switches in the Calley patent is limited by the necessity not to bridge the gap between adjacent flux conductors at the point of connection. By thus limiting the thickness of the flux switches to the thickness of the termination at the connection point a high flux density is indicated for the entire flux switch substantially similar to that at the termination point. It would be advantageous to provide a way to decrease flux density in the bulk of the flux conductor.